Lightning – My Hero Academia

The Brain vs. Heart Arc

Chapter 40: Become Better

"Alright, students, I have something important for all of you to go over. I've received reports from the heroes you shadowed during your internships, but I haven't had the chance to look through them all yet," Mr. Aizawa said as he entered the classroom.

"With that being said, you'll all be reporting to the training area, but for the next 30 minutes, the school board wants you all to fill out these surveys about your experiences. Go into as much detail as you want about what you experienced and how you feel it helped or didn't help."

Mr. Aizawa passed the stack of surveys to Chikashi, who proceeded to hand one out to each student. Ako took some time to write out his thoughts before he began pondering over everything he had experienced during his internship.

It had been a little while since he completed his week with the Ryukyu agency, but he could only imagine the list of negatives that would be in his report. After all, despite his improvement, he showed that he was very bad at following orders and minimizing collateral damage.

"No matter what I do, it feels like it isn't enough. I need to do more – I need to be more." Ako thought to himself...

After changing into their hero costumes, class 1-A went down to the training facility for more practice. Even though they were instructed to train again, most of them opted to talk about how their internships had gone.

"Man, Lia and I took an internship with Selkie; being a water-based hero is tough!" Erena said.

"Only because he made us act like we were members of the crew. I feel like we did more mopping than actual hero work." Lia commented.

"Yeahhh true, but we did get to spend some time on the beach after the last day! That was awesome! We got to watch the sunset! You wanna see the pictures?" Erena offered.

"Sure," Katsuo agreed, leaning over to look. "Oh wow, how pretty. Maybe I should start sketching nature again." He thought aloud.

"I think that when I become a pro hero, I might do better as a solo act," Chikashi said to Aya and her friend Yua Abe. "The internship was nice for seeing how things work in the professional setting, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel like working with others was holding me back a little."

"Maybe because you're not at their level yet. It only felt like you were being held back because they had to slow down to match your current pace." Yua pointed out as she snacked on a little bag of jelly beans.

"Whoa, wow! Harsh! I guess you might be right though." Chikashi acknowledged.

"I'm only saying it because I felt the same way," Yua pointed out. "My boost quirk is handy for support roles, but I got skills too, and I def felt like I wasn't being properly utilized in the team I was in." She explained.

"I see."

"Well, Ako and I got to do quite a bit with the Ryukyu Agency," Aya spoke up. "Actually, we probably got to do too much. We definitely got into a bit of trouble." She chuckled.

"Well, but the experience is still better than having to operate with training wheels on." Yua argued.

"Yeah. You and Ako worked together on your internships?" Chikashi asked Aya.

"Yep! I hope we get chances to all work together when we become pro heroes. That'd make the job so much fun." She said with a smile.

"Hey, Ako. I got a question." Koko White got his attention. Ako nodded and walked over to her, a few steps away from the others.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I read an article about that fight you and Zachary had last week. Did you two get in trouble for stepping in like that?" She asked.

"Um...well, we definitely got some tighter reins put on us, yeah." He answered.

"I see...I wrote in my report that I think we would all take care to be more cautious when it comes to hero work. This city is getting more and more dangerous with all the conflicts out there." She pointed out.

"Yeah, you're not wrong. It seems like every day now there's a new villain attack or some kind of uprising." Ako acknowledged.

"You don't know the half of it. There's been attacks on towns here and there with lots of casualties. Villains are becoming emboldened. It's making me nervous." Koko admitted.

"Are you two finished slacking off and flirting?" Yui Okamoto, the girl with the lioness quirk approached Ako and Koko. She rolled her eyes at Yui's comment.

"I don't know, have you finished showing everyone your boobs?" She shot back, drawing attention to the fact that Yui's hero costume was just a light green wrap over her chest and baggy white pants.

"I don't like your attitude, Koko. If you have a problem with me, let's settle it right now in training." Yui challenged with a growl. Koko shook her head at this.

"I'll pass. I still need to finish adjusting my gauntlets." She said, holding up the dart-shooting bracelets she had on.

"Of course. You continue playing with your toys," Yui waved her off. "Ako, are you interested in doing any real training today?" She asked.

"Now who has the attitude, Okamoto?" Koko commented.

"What's with all the bickering?" Ako asked in surprise, "We're all on the same side here, aren't we? Relax for a second. Yui, why don't you tell us how your internship went?" He suggested.

"It was enlightening," She answered. "I've learned new ways to fight from Gunhead. He told me about how there is more crime and more villains than ever in the city." She brought up.

"Yeah, that's what Koko and I were just talking about. We'll have to be careful whenever we leave school grounds." Ako said.

"If that is really true, our training is more important than ever. We cannot allow ourselves to be vulnerable or weak." Yui said.

"I agree," Ako nodded. "My time with Ryukyu revealed some...let's just say I've got some flaws I need to work on." He said.

"Of course. It will take time for us to reach our potential. That's why we cannot rush things." Koko pointed out.

"I intend to push myself in order to improve. Ako, I want you to train with me right now." She requested.

"O-Oh. Uh, okay." He agreed.

"Have fun. I'm going to perfect these. Fighting is not the only thing a hero does, you know." Koko huffed before leaving Ako and Yui to fight.

"I don't like her. She thinks too much." Yui commented after she was gone.

"Yeah, I can tell you don't like her," Ako said. "I don't see why. She's smart, and she makes a lot of good points." Ako said.

"Pheh, she doesn't act. Just like in the sports festival." She rolled her eyes.

Ako didn't have anything to say in response to that. He clearly wasn't the only one who knew about what Koko had done, or rather, not done in the first round of the sports festival. It was hard to say what Koko's thoughts on the matter were, but clearly her classmates had some opinions.

"Yeah..."

"Ako, you are strong like me. We should work together to become better." She suggested.

"Yeah, sure. I'm happy to help." He agreed.

"Good. I don't want to just train now. I want to train later too." She said.

"Train later? Like after school?" He asked.

"Yes, when the sun is down."

"But that's past curfew. We can't." Ako shook his head and refused. However, Yui insisted, glaring at him and grabbing his arm.

"Tanaka, I will do anything to become stronger. Will you?" She asked.

Ako swallowed, taking a moment to ponder this question.

"Yes." Although hesitant, he finally agreed to her request...